Veeco Instruments Inc. has agreed to sell its metrology business, including an optical industrial metrology division in Tucson that employs about 75 people, to Bruker Corp. for $229 million in cash.
Bruker, based near Boston in Billerica, Mass., said it will continue to operate the Tucson business, known as Veeco Optical Industrial Metrology, and a Veeco atomic-force microscope business in Santa Barbara, Calif., that was also part of the deal.
The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be finalized after regulatory approvals, in the fourth quarter.
Bruker said it expects to retain "the vast majority" of employees at the Tucson and Santa Barbara divisions, including management, operations, research and development, sales and marketing and service staff.
The companies' international field sales and support staff will be integrated into Bruker's existing sales offices, applications laboratories and service centers worldwide.
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The acquired Veeco businesses are forecast to contribute revenues of more than $130 million to Bruker in 2011, Bruker said in a news release.
Ross Smith, vice president and general manager of Veeco Metrology in Tucson, said Bruker is a good fit for the Tucson company because both specialize in metrology - technology used to measure objects or effects.
"That is Bruker's core business. Veeco, over time, has become more of a process-control company," Smith said.
Veeco Metrology's main business is making devices, such as optical profilers, that measure the shape and roughness of surfaces for industrial applications.
According to Veeco, Bruker intends to combine Veeco Metrology with its global Bruker Nano instruments business, which sells a broad range of systems for materials and nanotechnology research.
Veeco CEO John R. Peeler said in prepared remarks that the sale will help Veeco focus on and invest in its LED (light-emitting diode) and solar and data-storage-process equipment businesses.
Peeler called Veeco's metrology unit "a great business that is strong, growing and profitable" but said it "lacks meaningful synergies" with the company's process-equipment businesses.
Did you know
Tucson-based Veeco Metrology was formed in 1997 when Plainview, N.Y.-based Veeco Instruments Inc. acquired locally based Wyko Corp.
Wyko was co-founded in 1984 by University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences Dean James Wyant and former UA optical scientist Chris Koliopoulos.
The deal, for Veeco stock, was valued at about $87 million.
Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner at dwichner@azstarnet.com or 573-4181.